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What's being said

If anything, this was a purely political decision -- it pushes the court more into the political spotlight rather than out of it. The Obama administration ridiculously continues to try to portray the mandate as not a tax, when that is the only way it can be portrayed. The idea that the mandate has morphed from a penalty into a tax is sheer nonsense. Expanding the taxing power in this fashion 1) creates an entity that our is neither fish nor fowl -- it is clearly not a duty, impost, or excise, nor is it an income tax and seemingly it is not a direct tax either as then the Anti-injunction Act would have applied along with apportionment. This will undoubtedly lead to further litigation, never a good thing. 2) the expansion of the taxing power in this manner allows undisciplined and unlimited use and abuse of this power by Congress to coerce behavior. This is exactly what our Founding Fathers were afraid of in the Stamp Act and other taxes that led them to war against Great Britain in 1775. None of this even gets into one of the most nonsensical and destructive laws in history. Rather than decreasing costs, increasing the number of people with medical coverage, and improving the medical care of the American people, it will drastically increase costs, leave millions still uninsured and virtually destroy the US health care system! How can any of that keep the Supreme Court out of the spotlight?

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